Wave wins fifth straight the not-so-easy way

Wave 7, Freyburg 5

Cassidy Schiff is part of the hefty Wave attack at bat. Courtesy Darien Athletic Foundation

SOFTBALL

Darien won it fifth straight, coming up big when it needed to, 7-5 over visiting Freyburg, Maine on Monday.

But, it probably would have preferred not to have cued the drama sound track late in the game.

It wasn’t our best defensive performance but the offense was fantastic.

— Cassidy Schiff

“Good teams like Freyburg don’t give up until the last out, so we have to learn to play a full seven innings the same way,” said Wave senior Cassidy Schiff. “If we play our game for a full seven innings, which is what we’re working towards, there’s no one that can stand in our way.”

The Wave scored four runs in the third inning, but Freyburg surprised the Wave with four to tie it in the fifth inning.

Darien had clutch hitting and base running to answer the challenge in the bottom of the frame, though, with doubles from Kristen Picard and Jessica Carlo to go up by two.

Wave coach Nick DeMaio credited the team with having the mental edge.

“I think that Sophia (Barbour) was pitching well and it wasn’t a bad effort,” said Schiff. “Sometimes that’s just the way the ball bounces. It wasn’t our best defensive performance but the offense was fantastic. That was the key to staying on top.”

Darien had 14 hits in all to the visitors’ four, and four errors.

Barbour had four hits, including two doubles, Picard had three hits,

Barbour, who got on base to begin the Wave’s tie-breaking at-bat, had the win on the mound.

Schiff, Kalani Caruso had multiple hits and RBI.

Darien improves to 6-2 overall.

“We can definitely build off this game,” said Schiff. “It shows that we can’t coast through games after we grab an early lead.”